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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2000)
I uesday, March21,)) ir both took a gamble on-' •grams that appeared to^ sentence to the back^ all sports sections months each broughtt|j to the front pages anti it 'lit reels, the middle of “Marchl:, questions remain: Howi ike Iowa State and willkj a follow in his foe TH F WEDNESDAY March 22, 2000 Volume 106 ~ Issue 112 16 pages A i .'I i’i I Uf I tt ^; W»i I Northgate arking to e modified Statue dedicated in honor of millennium ifi I BY BRADY CREEL The Battalion Aggies seeking to do business at Northgate may soon find it difficult to park as College Station experi ences growing pains in the midst of a revitalization project. Citing safety concerns of pedes trians and bicyclists, parking along College Main will be removed, and otherparking spaces wil 1 be metered. “The plan was to remove parking on College Main to make it more bi cycle friendly to reduce conflict be tween bicycles and vehicles,” said Jon Mies, fire marshal for the city of College Station. Mies said he estimates the park ing will be removed by May 1, but the timeline has not yet been finalized. The city of College Station will sur vey merchants in the Northgate dis trict in order to assess the parking needs of each establishment. Lynn Mcllhaney, mayor of Col lege Station, said this change is long overdue and is part of a larger project to revitalize and redevelop the North- “One of the biggest problems w'as people wanted to come up and putabusiness in [Northgate] but there wasn’t any land for parking,” Mcll haney said. This problem led to the city’s de cision to lift the parking requirement ordinance, which requires all new buildings to have a specific amount of parking spaces. Instead, the city made Northgate a special district, in I which everything is handled on a case-by-case basis. “If you look at the overall pro ject. J,think that everyone is trying 0RTH6ATE PARKING GARAR RUBEN DELUNA/Tm Battalion to find a way to work together,” Mcllhaney said. “The goal is to re vitalize that area and to make it a place where people feel safe walk ing and riding their bicycles.” The plan to remove parking came as a result of multiple studies done on the Northgate area since 1992. The city fire marshal’s office has been working with the Economic Devel opment Department and Develop ment Services since the original re development of College Avenue was done in 1994. Each of these studies analyzed as pects of the parking situation at North- gate, but they ultimately offered solu tions for managing Northgate parking and enforcing parking regulations. One of the studies recommended the implementation of parking meters. See Nort hgate on Page 2. BY BROOKE HODGES The Battalion The Arts Council of Brazos Valley and its Millennium Com mission dedicated Tuesday a five tons steel sculpture titled “Eter nal Winds,” on the comer of Texas Avenue and Walton Road, across from the main entrance to Texas A&M University. The sculpture was built by Dr. Joe Smith to commemorate the Brazos Valley’s Millennium celebration. “It’s an exceptional privilege to have an artist of [Smith’s] tal ent right here in Brazos County,” said President-Elect of the Arts Council of Brazos Valley Jerry E. Fox. “Dr. Smith understands the vital role of expression.” Smith concluded the dedication by thanking people who helped him create his sculpture. “May the eternal winds that propel us into the new millenni um be fair,” Smith said. The sculpture is one of the largest public sculptures in Cen tral Texas, standing 25 feet in height, 18 feet in width and 6 feet in depth. “The sculpture was chosen to represent the millennium be cause of its size and the idea of time passing,” said P. David Romei, executive director of the Arts Council. “It is so large and a millennium is a large span of time,” Romei said. “The form represents time — time is always with us and yet it’s fleeting, like the wind.” Romei mentored an Eisenhower Leadership Program team last year. Their task included identifying certain sites that were adaptable for a work of art. The site’s emptiness lent itself to a major work of art, Romei said. The dedication ceremony helped to bring together the four fundamental entities in this area, he said. “It brought together Texas A&M, Bryan, College Station and the Brazos County,” Romei said. “We all came together as an entity.” College Station Mayor Lynn Mcllhaney spoke at the cere mony along with the mayor of Bryan Lonnie Stabler; Charles Sip- pial, vice president of physical plant at Texas A&M; and County Commissioner Randy Simms. Chancellor of Texas A&M University System Lt. Gener al Howard Graves was the keynote speaker for the dedica tion ceremony. Art is a way that people of the future will know what the peo ple of our time were like; you leam about a culture by the art they produce. Mayor Mcllhaney said. “The sculpture is saying, ‘Sail On,’ because we have a bright future ahead of us,” she said. The Millennium Commission, chairperson, Carol A. Wagner, presented a representative of First American Bank with a sample of Smith’s work. First American Bank matched the donations made by the cities •of Col lege Station and Bryan in order to fund die installation and payment for the sculpture totaling $30,000. GUY ROGERS & STUART VILLANUEVA/Tm: Battalion Dr. Joe Smith of Caldwell speaks to members of the Bryan/College Station community at the dedication of his 25ft tall sculpture, “Eternal Winds’’ near the main entrance to Texas A&M on Tuesday. Members of the Full House Blues Band (left to right), John Wick, Renn Carson and Donald Childs performed at the dedication. -a-lot count. p.m.-9 p.m.) -2:30 p.m.) ) >25 Cash >117 d Pea.) :s early. cpoit.cooi' SBP Candidates discuss solutions for diversity BY ROLANDO GARCIA The Battalion While there is no magic wand to wave that will eliminate the widely perceived intolerance and lack of racial diversity at Texas A&M, the four candidates for student body president said the University can begin to foster a more welcoming at mosphere for minorities. To do that will require a more sustained effort on the part ofstudents, faculty, and administration, senior marketing ma jor Jeff Schiefelbein said. “Having a multicultural attitude isn’t a project, its not pro gramming, its not an organization or a group or an event, its an attitude, and its 24 hours a day,” Schiefelbein said. To expand the diversity efforts to the entire A&M communi ty, Schiefelbein said he would encourage co-programming be tween multicultural student groups and regular student groups so Aggies of different backgrounds could work together and get to know each other outside contrived “diversity” projects. “I’d like to see GLBTA [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans- gendered Aggies] and organizations that I’m in work together on projects where their minority status isn’t the focqs of what we’re working on. Di versity can scare peo ple off sometimes; they think they’re gonna get lectured,” Schiefelbein said. “I think its time we change that attitude by setting common goals, they may include diversi ty but also other things as well.” Addressing the hostility and harrassment many homosexual STUDENT BODY ELECTIONS students complain of, Schiefelbein said that although A&M Pres ident Dr. Ray M. Bowen shot down a proposal last semester to include sexual orientation in the non-discrimination clause of the Student Handbook, a slightly tinkered ver sion of the proposal de vised by an advisory committee appointed by Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. J. Malon Southerland has a good chance of passing. “That would be a good step in the right direction. People talk about ‘equal rights alj the time, but 1 think a better word for it is ‘same rights.’ Thaf just means that you’re a person and I’m a person, regardless of where we’re coming from, and we deserve the exact same treatment,” Schiefelbein said. Corey Rosenbusch, a junior agricultural development ma jor, said a summer internship in Indonesia taught him how important it is for students to be exposed to different cultures. “1 wish every student on this campus had the opportunity to go overseas and be immersed into a foreign culture. I ab solutely loved it because my eyes and my mind were finally exposed to things that you don’t get here,” Rosenbusch said. “We’re a very homogeneous culture here at A&M, and to a lot of people, that’s what’s attractive. But these students have to realize that although its what makes them comfortable, we’re not really being just because what’s fair is exposing them to what the real world is like.” While multicultural student groups put on an array of educa tional and cutlural programs, the students that need to be there don’t attend, Rosenbusch said. To give otherwise apathetic students a See Candidates on Page 2. ie experiment i Balance dotation el alignment 693-8575 H itch srs tulips) Accepted. 707 Texas Ave. y Bryan 822-2141 j Student senate to vote on early registration BY JEANETTE SIMPSON The Battalion Geoff Ashley, a senior management major, works 17 hours a week for the English Lan guage Institute and depends upon early registration to schedule his classes as to allow him to complete his work schedule. But if a current proposal from the Faculty Senate’s Academic Operations Committee (AOC) is executed, Ashley will have to find a new way to balance his academics and work. The committee has been analyzing an early proposal which could eliminate early regis tration for student workers and students participating in co-op programs. The proposal, if approved, will ajso change the format of early registration for hon ors students. A resolution will be voted on at Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting to express student disapproval of this action. “This resolution expresses to the AOC that the student body wants to maintain early reg istration for student workers, co-op students and honors students,” said Brent Spencer, acad emic affairs chair and a senior microbiology major. The Computer Access/Instructional Technology Fee Disapproval Bill, which calls for the Board of Regents to not approve the $ 1.25 per credit hour fee increase, will also be voted on by the Student Senate in this evening’s meeting. Off-campus Senator David Kessler, a junior English major, said the bill disapproves the broadening of the definition of the Computer Access Fee by changing the title to the Com puter Access/Instructional Technology Fee. “In changing the title of the fee, students are going to see fewer direct benefits, because the University will be able to use the money for things other than maintaining the computer equipment and facilities used by the students,” he said. To be approved, the bill requires a two-thirds vote by the Senate. If passed, the bill will be considered by the Board of Regents at the end of the week. The Student Senate will also vote on the Proposed Fee Increase for 2000 Approval Bill, which approves of the increase in the International Student Fee, the University Authorized Tuition and the Equipment Access Fee. Women’s achievements recognized at luncheon INSIDE BY ANN LOISEL The Battalion As a woman in a male-dominated occupation, Jen nifer Harris, has learned not to worry about others’ pre conceived notions about her because she is a woman and to overcome them by being great at what she does — leading various aerospace engineering projects to explore Mars. “There are always obstacles to doing what you want to do ... but certainly, there are no insurmount able obstacles if you love what you do and if you do it passionately,” Harris said. Harris was the keynote speaker for the Women’s Week 2000Awards luncheon on Tuesday and the former flight director of NASA’s Mars Pathfinder expedition. “If you focus, not on the problem of being a woman in a ‘man’s world,’ or being a woman in a ‘man’s occu pation’ but on loving what you do, and being great at what you do, you can overcome any challenges,” she said. The luncheon featured Harris as a female role mod el and honored the four recipients of this year’s Women’s Week Awards. These were presented at the Bush Presidential Conference Center to women who encourage and promote sensitivity and awareness of women’s issues at Texas A&M. The winners, graduate student Heather Brown, As sistant Director of Engineering Student Programs Jan Rinehart, Associate Professor of Construction Science Nancy Holland, and Associate Provost and Dean of Faculties Janis Stout, all received $100 U.S. Savings * SUSAN REDDING/THE BATTALION Nancy Holland receives the Faculty Award at the Women’s Week 2000 luncheon. Bonds and an award piece at the luncheon. Stout asked to donate her $ 100 award to a scholarship for women. See Women on Page 2. A&M forward Jack granted another year of eligibility Page 11 •Fashion Forward Stores try to ease difficulty of finding unique clothes. Page 3 •Ritalin, Prozac and kids, oh my! Prescribing kids mood-altering drugs dangerous. Page 15 •Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57 p.m. for details on the Texas Stock Index. •Check out The Battalion online at battalion.tamu.edu.